Castle de la Rosé

Elian's POV

I smirked into Schuyler's hair, wondering how it was possible to be so irritated with a person and so absolutely entertained at the same time. I have to admit that while no one can antagonize me like he can, no one can make me happy like he can either...not that he needs to know that.

"Just go to sleep, Schuyler," I murmured, just wanting to sleep away the time until Schuyler and I could get out of here and have some real privacy.

Upon seeing Schuyler's expression, I had to conceal my sudden amusement from the frisky boy in my arms. "How am I supposed to do that when you've been grinding against me all day long?" he whined. Even with his face buried in my shoulder, I could practically see that his lip was jutting out in a pout.

"Well, isn't your life just a bitch," I said, scooting further down the wall, so that I was basically lying down and closed my eyes.

I could hear Schuylers puffs of annoyance and over the top horror. "You can't ignore me," he grumbled, petulantly.

My lack of response clearly told him I could do just that.

"How will you feel when I ignore you when you need me?" Schuyler grumbled. "You won't like it and you'll get all grumpy with me again, that's what."

I continued to ignore him, mostly for my own entertainment, and I was silently busting up on the inside.

"I can make you pay attention to me," Schuyler said with such a certainty that my internal laughter abruptly stopped.

I braced for whatever Schuyler was planning to do to me, sure that it was probably going to be both loud and painful. You can imagine my surprised when, instead of pulling the feathers out of my wings or poking me in the eye, Schuyler leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on my lips.

That in and of itself almsot surprised me into opening my eyes, but I resolutely kept them closed, wanting to see what Schuyler would do next. The next kiss was on my forehead, and the following two were on each of my closed eyelids. After that, there was another gentle kiss on my lips. Schuyler lingered for a moment before pulling away.

"Elian," he murmured, drawing out the last syllable of my name, but he didn't seem bothered by the fact that I was continuing to test his usually minuscule patience.

Another kiss was placed on my jaw line and then the next was on my neck.

Involuntarily, I twitched and turned my head, so that Schuyler wouldn't have access to my neck.

Undeterred, Schuyler nosed his way under my chin and placed a kiss in the exact same place.

I twitched again and informed Schuyler in no uncertain terms that if he did that again, his lap privileges would immediately be revoked. All Schuyler did was get a good grip on my feathers (I knew that this would involve feather pulling at some point.) and kiss me there again.

I made a sound that was most definitely not a whine and tried to upend Schuyler from my lap, which only resulted in my nearly losing two handfuls of feathers. "Stop it," I ordered. "No means no."

I was promptly disobeyed. "Are you ticklish there?" Schuyler asked, but from his devilish smile it was obvious that he already though he had the answer. "Are you ticklish anywhere else?" he asked, sliding his cold fingers under my shirt.

I shuddered, trying to smother my laughter as his icy fingers danced up and down my sides. "Schuyler, stop," I demanded, trying to capture his hands between bursts of laughter.

Schuyler was laughing even harder than I was by the time I captured both of his hands in one of mine and pinned them.

"You are the most provoking person I have ever met," I told him.

"You know you don't mind," Schuyler giggled. "And I told you I'd make you pay attention to me. Anyway, I think I'll go to sleep now."

With that, Schuyler promptly curled up on my chest and went to sleep. With a sigh at the absurdity of the situation, I wrapped my arms around the sleeping boy and fell asleep as well.